A Tempestuous Sejm in the King’s Absence. Sejm in Piotrków. 1535.

The Sejm was convoked by the king in September 1535 r. Pre-Sejm Sejmiks were held in October 1535. Sejm sessions opened on November 25th 1535 in the absence of the king, then in Lithuania in view of the war with Moscow; the monarch ordered the Sejm to proceed nonetheless. Debates were extraordinarily turbulent: regardless of the royal expectations that matters of state defence would be raised – as the war with Moscow aside, Tatar and Italian menace was at hand, not to mention continuous violations to public order – issues of the execution of rights were discussed, correctives to rights pending in particular. Matters of revisioning prerogatives of the Church, of cities, and of Royal Prussia against common rights of the Kingdom were raised, to the resistance of the clergy and the Royal Chancellery. Yet it was duly resolved that a future execution of rights would be carried out to annul any privileges of cities, churches and monasteries contradicting common rights. Furthermore, the Sejm agreed to call for a levy en masse in 1536 against Moldavia and the Tatars, the levy ultimately called by the king on May 5th 1536. In all probability, the Sejm concluded in December 1535.